A base at the end of the world. What is happening with Polish construction in Antarctica?

Frost and wind reaching up to 150 km/h – in such conditions the Polish Antarctic Station is being modernized. Henryk Arctowski. Construction began in 2018 and was divided into stages. Almost one third of the area of ​​the new main building was first trial-assembled in Poland to eliminate errors that would be difficult to correct on site. The station is over 14,000 km away from Poland. km.

Investments worth over PLN 173 million from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education will allow Poland to maintain the advisory status of the Antarctic Treaty and provide scientists with safe conditions for conducting year-round research.

Subsequent stages of construction and modernization of the Polish Antarctic Station

– The main building is already closed. We are working on finishing the inside, Anna Kloc, senior specialist for polar logistics at the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, told Wprost.pl. The closed shell stage was completed as planned. The new building has an area of ​​approximately 1.5 thousand m2. m, which will finally allow for serving meals once without dividing them into rounds. The center also includes, among others: laboratory space, gym, library and greenhouse. This is a project of an employee of the Kuryłowicz + Architekci architect.

The Arctowski research complex includes 12 buildings and is a place of research in the field of, among others: microbiology, ecology, oceanography, geology and climatology, as well as environmental monitoring. It functions as a system of communicating vessels and is a fully autonomous entity.

The reconstruction concerns the entire fuel system of the Station, the energy installation system and the water and sewage system. Garage halls and the so-called aggregation plant. The complex will gain two additional warehouse halls, a technical gas warehouse and a sewage treatment plant.

– If everything goes according to plan – and we face numerous threats, e.g. bad weather conditions – in February 2027, the Polish Antarctic Station will turn fifty. We will celebrate Henryk Arctowski in the new main building, Agnieszka Kruszewska, the station manager from the Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, told PAP.

The Station’s comfortable fiftieth birthday in 2027

The main contractor of the Antarctic investment is Dekpol Budownictwo and Andrewex Construction. Importantly, the entire modernization is carried out on a “living organism”, because the Arctowski Station has not been closed and researchers and expedition participants are still staying there. About 50 people are involved in the expansion itself, and a total of over 80 people are staying at the Station.

The previous base had been operating since the 1970s. The buildings were worn out by the arctic climate (low level of insulation, strong winds), so they needed to be urgently replaced with a new, more durable structure. Also energy-saving during the show. Poland is one of the 29 consultative states of the Antarctic Treaty, but in order to legally continue research in this region, the building must meet strict ecological and logistic standards.